History Film / MastersOfTheUniverse

* ATasteOfTheLash: Upon being enslaved by Skeletor and refusing to kneel, He-Man is tortured via electric whip.

* BigNO: Kevin, when Julie is [[spoiler:shot]].

!This film contains examples of

A fictionalized version of the making of the live-action film was later used as the basis for a story arc in Paul Chadwick's ''Comicbook/{{Concrete}}''. Additionally, there's no Prince Adam in this version, only He-Man, in keeping with its early origins: Adam originally didn't exist in the toy line or the (pre-Filmation) mini-comics that came with it.

* ShutUpGunshot: Gwildor's CrowningMomentOfAwesome.

* LockingMacGuyverInTheStoreCupboard: Skeletor leaves the damaged Cosmic Key and its inventor in the middle of a moderately technologically-advanced civilization along with all the heroes except He-Man. Between them, they have all the parts they need to fix it, ''and'' somebody who can figure out how to set it to transport them directly into Grayskull's throne room.

* LockingMacGuyverInTheStorageCupboard: Skeletor leaves the damaged Cosmic Key and its inventor in the middle of a moderately technologically-advanced civilization along with all the heroes except He-Man. Between them, they have all the parts they need to fix it, ''and'' somebody who can figure out how to set it to transport them directly into Grayskull's throne room.

* LockingMacGuyverInTheSotageCupboard: Skeletor leaves the damaged Cosmic Key and its inventor in the middle of a moderately technologically-advanced civilization along with all the heroes except He-Man. Between them, they have all the parts they need to fix it, ''and'' somebody who can figure out how to set it to transport them directly into Grayskull's throne room.

* SequelHook: The PostCreditsSequence has Skeletor promising he'll be back. Nope.

* CaptainArbitrarian: It takes awhile for Lubic to realize what happening is the real deal.

* [[MugglesDoItBetter Muggles Do It... Competently]]: Though Earthlings are outgunned because the [[{{Phlebotinum}} technology]] of Eternia is clearly more advanced than Earth's, it appears to derive from similar sources and be fairly easy to master with native technical skill. One scene demonstrates this in that a microwave Kevin happens to be using interferes with the bad guys' scanners (just as it has been known to interfere with our own radio, television, and wi-fi signals). Kevin is able to operate the musical key effectively once Gwildor helps him hook a Casio keyboard from the local music shop up to it, and in one rather entertaining scene, Lubic demonstrates that good old-fashioned shotgun slugs work just as well on those MechaMooks as any of Eternia's energy weapons.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Gwildor for creating the Cosmic Key. He states out loud that he wishes he never had.

** Also, Julie feels it's her fault her parents because she chose to stay home and finish her studies while they went on vacation.

** Just before receiving the powers of Grayskull, Skeletor names himself "Master of the Universe". In the original cartoons, Skeletor and his forces were the [[TitleCharacter eponymous "Masters of the Universe"]] before the opening narration was changed.
** Skeletor’s plans to drain the Sorceress’ life force and use it to become powerful mirror the episode “The Dragon Invasion”.

** TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: Karg comes knocking with a bunch of robots in tow, prompting Gwildor to make a ''very'' swift change of plans.

* TrappedInAnotherWorld: After it changes hands several times, Skeletor finally wrecks the device the Eternians need to get home, thereby forcing them to stay on Earth. Since he underestimates the {{Muggles}} as usual, however, he makes the mistake of leaving the damaged device and its inventor in the middle of a moderately technologically advanced civilization along with all the heroes except He-Man. Between them, they have all the parts they need to fix it, ''and'' somebody who can figure out how to set it to transport them directly into Grayskull's throne room.

* {{Expy}}: Gwildor was made to replace Orko the robot, who would have been impractical to do in live-action.

** Blade and Saurod made appearances in the comic book continuity, making them [[CanonImmigrant Canon Immigrants]] of a sort, [[CanonDiscontinuity despite Saurod getting killed by Skeletor in the film]]. Possibly however they were following on from the movie's comic book adaptation, which did not include Saurod's death. He, Blade and Gwildor also both received toys in the original toyline.

** Much later, Gwildor and his invention were introduced into the mainstream He-Man story. He, Blade and Saurod were integrated into mainstream continuity by way of their ''Masters of the Universe Classics'' toy bios.

* ATasteOfTheLash: After Skeletor manages to capture He-Man, he has one of his men give He-Man this... with a laser whip, no less.

* ChekhovsSkill: Kevin is a musician and initially mistakes the Cosmic Key as a fancy synthesizer, as it uses musical tones as part of its operation. A music shop employee even teases him as "Mr. Perfect Pitch." In the climax of the Earth-based story their Cosmic Key is badly damaged, Gwildor was able to repair it's basic function but the memory and targeting system was fried, making it functionally impossible to return to Eternia. Kevin did hear the tones used by Skeletor's army and rigged up the Cosmic Key to his keyboard, recreating the same musical composition bring them right back to Grayskull.

* MagicMusic: How the Cosmic Key works. It basically uses a type of FunctionalMagic via music: playing certain notes on the instrument much like dialing a telephone sets the coordinates to which it transports, thus sending the ''dialers'' wherever they wish to go. Near the end of the film Kevin is able to replicate its effect using an ordinary keyboard synthesizer hooked up to it.
** Gwildor mentions that the functionality of the key is perfect, but Skeletor's damage essentially wiped the musical tones from its memory. Kevin is playing the "home" (i.e. Eternia) tone from memory.

* AdaptationalBadass: The cartoon version of Skeletor was a LaughablyEvil goofball and rarely got things done. This Skeletor had already taken over Eternia by the intro and is shown to be a capable and terrifying villain that doesn't mess around.

* {{Expy}}: Gwildor to Orko.

* HookHand: Karg has one.

The movie features Skeletor acquiring the Cosmic Key, a teleportation device from Gwildor, an eccentric inventor, which gives him an edge in his war against He-Man. Eventually the heroes find an identical device and use it to escape capture, accidentally traveling to a distant planet -- Earth. Skeletor is not far behind. Starring Creator/DolphLundgren as He-Man and Creator/FrankLangella as Skeletor, Meg Foster as Evil-Lyn and a young Creator/CourteneyCox and [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Robert Duncan McNeill]] as teenage sweethearts Julie Winston and Kevin Corrigan, who are caught up in the events.

* AGodAmI: Skeletor has one of these speeches at the climax, right down to the line "I am a god!"
** He does show some signs of being a PhysicalGod, albeit hardly an omnipotent one.

* IAteWhat: Teela remarks "What a barbaric world!" when Man-At-Arms shocks her and Gwildor by telling them in a matter-of-fact way that the food they were eating on Earth used to be a live animal.

* ItSucksToBeTheChosenOne: Kevin and Julie, two normal earth teens don't like the idea of being chased around and nearly killed just because they happend to find the {{MacGuffin}} that everybody wants. Heck Kevin even tried to [[RefusalOfTheCall refuse the call]]!

* LargeHam: Skeletor down to the core. '''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S87lvHz1qoM&feature=related I DARE ANYTHING]]''' '''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjAUdSgSIzA&feature=relmfu YOU MORTAL!]]'''

* MythologyGag: Skeletor’s plans to drain the Sorceress’ life force and use it to become powerful mirror the episode “The Dragon Invasion”.

* SupportingProtagonist: Zigzagged. While He-Man is the still hero of the movie and the focus character on Eternia, when he arrives on Earth, the role of POV character goes to Kevin, then back to He-Man once everyone is back on Eternia.

* AdaptationalBadass: This Skeletor is considerably more competent, and much [[DarkerAndEdgier darker]] and serious than the original.